Beauty and the Beast's Sendhil Ramamurthy Previews an Epic Beast-on-Beast Fight in the Finale

Beauty and the Beast is finally staging a beast-on-beast fight.

In the concluding moment of last week's episode, viewers learned that Gabe (Sendhil Ramamurthy), with his glowing yellow eyes, is in fact a beast. On Thursday's penultimate hour of the show's freshman season (9/8c, CW), Gabe and Vincent (Jay Ryan) will meet for the first time — leading to an epic beastly battle in the season finale.

"There's going to be a big beast-on-beast fight that we've been building up to, and the last 10 minutes are mind-blowing," Ramamurthy tells TVGuide.com.

Read on for more about the Gabe reveal, why it could actually be a good thing for Vincent's future and whether or not Gabe is really interested in Catherine (Kristin Kreuk) romantically.

So Gabe's a beast! Will we learn how he is similar to or different from Vincent?
Sendhil Ramamurthy: We'll find out he's an earlier version of the beast and he's less stable. Vincent remembers when he's a beast and everything he does, but it's not that way for Gabe. He wakes up and thinks, "What have I done? Am I OK? Did I hurt anybody?" He has no recollection. He is definitely scarier and stronger and quite a bit more animalistic ... and that scares Gabe the most. [We also learn] his DNA is corrupted and he's slowly dying, so he has to find a way to solve this or that's the end of him.

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Tell me about Gabe and Vincent's first meeting.
Ramamurthy: They meet for the first time in [Thursday's] episode. Gabe confronts Catherine about it saying, "Please, I think your fella can help me out, and if I can help him, [I wil]. I don't want to hurt him or expose him — I just want to talk to him." Catherine's instinct is to protect Vincent at all costs, but then it comes out that Gabe has pills that he takes to keep him "normal" and that interests Catherine very much. So, it opens up this door to Catherine and Vincent that I think, up until now, they didn't really consider.

With this common ground, is there a chance that Gabe and Vincent could be friends?
Ramamurthy: I think that's certainly Gabe's intention. I don't know if there's a bromance brewing. That might be pushing it, but I think Gabe's overriding interest is to meet with Vincent because he feels Vincent can help him.

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Will we find out more of Gabe's backstory, specifically the time between being at Muirfield and now?
Ramamurthy: The next two episodes are filled with flashbacks, and you find out a lot more about what's been happening. He's been alone his whole life, fending for himself. His overriding instinct as a human being and later as a beast is to survive, and he'll do whatever it takes to do that. He's not out to hurt people and we touch upon that in the finale. The stuff that happens when he's a beast affects him tremendously, and you can see that it's heartbreaking. This guy has not had an easy life. Gabe needs a big old hug. He hasn't had a lot of caring and loving in his life, and it's affected him.

Should viewers still be worried that Gabe might come between Vincent and Catherine?
Ramamurthy: It's very much up in the air, and there's a lot more to be explored. As far as a romantic thing? I think that's really difficult on a series called Beauty and the Beast when you know that the beauty and the beast end up together. At that point, you know it would just be filler. So I don't think Gabe's overriding interest in Catherine is romantic, but they have a bond through her mother. I really like how the writers handle it over the next two episodes. Cat may not agree with what Gabe has done, but when she finds out about the circumstances of his childhood and what happened, I think there's an understanding and a sympathy there that she didn't have before.

Will others learn that Gabe is a beast?
Ramamurthy: Oh yeah, there are some pretty big revelations. The way it's done with J.T. (Austin Basis) in one scene captures scary, fun and completely messed up. That was a really fun scene to shoot.

What can you say about the finale?
Ramamurthy: It's a huge cliff-hanger for all of the characters, but big time for Gabe. There's going to be a big beast-on-beast fight that we've been building up to, and the last 10 minutes are mind-blowing. We shot for four nights with helicopters, cars flipping, people flying through the air. It's definitely a great way to end the season and nothing is tied up. I think it would've been a really difficult finale for fans to watch if they didn't know there was a Season 2.

Beauty and the Beast airs on Thursdays at 9/8c on The CW.

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